Remembering Cypress Gardens

As you may all know, Legoland Florida is coming to Florida!

But, what about the old Cypress Gardens?

Have you ever visited it when it was fully open?

Cypress Gardens was advertised as Orlando's most complete destination, with 4 areas:

1) a theme park section (the rides were like the one you can find in Fun Spot);

2) a water park section (a small but decent water park, included with the admission, until 2009);

3) a nature park section (this was the best area of the park, the gardens are really gorgeous, but don't worry, they are staying, as Legoland officials have announced);

4) a zoo section (but the animals were suffering, because the cages were too small).

They also had a great water ski show (and Legoland is thinking about keeping it).

Here you are the only 4 pictures I had left of the park:

Unfortunately, the park closed down definitely in September 2009, and here's what the ex-owners posted on Cypress Gardens' website:

Cypress Gardens and Splash Island Waterpark Now Closed

WINTER HAVEN, FL, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009:

From the earliest moment that our firm purchased Cypress Gardens and Splash Island Waterpark, our highest priority has always been to maintain the park’s beauty and protect its proud traditions as a mainstay of the State’s history and natural treasures. It is with these ideals in mind that we must announce that the park will be closed for business as of Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

During the last two years, Land South Adventures, LLC, has explored numerous management frameworks and exhausted every possible approach to keep the park running in its traditional form. Now, we are in the process of negotiating with several potential purchasers and lessees for all or part of the property, and do not feel it is fair to our employees, the guests, or the public to continue operations heading into the fall with the future of the property in flux. We are optimistic that the outcome will be in the best interests of both the park and the residents of Polk County and the State of Florida.

Overall, it was a very good and affordable family park, but if I had to choose between Cypress Gardens and Legoland, I would choose Legoland any day, for the following reasons:

-Legoland is a good brand;

-They will build more than 50 rides, which is great;

-their rides' quality is way better than Cypress Gardens';

-They will build at least one dark ride!!!! Yes!

But, what about you? Which park do you like more?

Do you miss Cypress Gardens or you didn't even know it existed?

P.S. > You can still explore Cypress Gardens by internet!

Here's the downloadable PARK MAP (a PDF file).

And here you can see the gardens.

For the history of the park, go here.

And here you are some official pictures (copyright of Cypress Gardens) of the park (You can find these pictures and more at this web address):